Pawnbroking in Pop Culture: Exploring Depictions, Stereotypes, and Accuracy

Even if you’ve never dealt with a pawnbroker, you might have an idea of what to expect from one, thanks to the numerous depictions of them you have been exposed to via popular media and culture.

Pawnbroking is a practice that’s been around for generations. At the turn of the 20^th century, there were as many pawnbrokers in the average British town centre as there were pubs. These businesses served a vital function – to allow people to borrow money, secured against their valuables.

Depictions in Film

Since a pawnbroker is a professional who deals in valuables, they often play key roles in stories that involve the pursuit of valuables. Unfortunately for the image of the pawnbroker, the character is often unscrupulous, and involved with criminal elements. A good example is the pawn shop in ‘The Crow’, from which a resurrected Brandon Lee must recover the engagement ring intended for his fiancé.

Other film depictions of pawnbrokers have been more sympathetic. One example, ‘The Pawnbroker’, even helped to shape attitudes toward film censorship in America. It’s about a Jewish concentration camp survivor and his exploits in the Spanish Harlem section of New York. The film was condemned by religious groups, thanks to its graphic treatment of very unpleasant subject matter – but when it was approved for general release, it arguably changed the face of Hollywood.

Portrayals in Television Programmes

In the world of television, there’s a similar bias among depictions of pawnbrokers. They’re a fixture in crime dramas, where they are frequently a storage place for important plot items, and sources of conflict for characters.

Of course, that’s just the world of fiction. Pawnbroking has enjoyed mainstream attention, thanks to the History Channel’s Pawn Stars. This is a reality TV series with a focus on a particular family-run establishment in Las Vegas.

Representation in Literature

Since pawnbroking has been around for hundreds of years, it should be no surprise that it’s found itself playing a central role in many classic novels, plays, and short stories. Charles Dickens once related a visit to a Pawnbroker in Drury Lane, London, and relayed his impression of it via a sketch in the Evening Standard. Many of the themes he explored, including desperation and poverty in Victorian England, played a crucial role in his novels, too.

Among the most infamous pawnbrokers in any novel, however, appears in the first act of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. An elderly woman called Alyona Ivanovna is described as greedy, cruel, and selfish – and partly for those reasons, she is murdered by the novel’s protagonist, Raskolnikov.

Common Stereotypes and Misconceptions

It is relatively easy to write a villainous pawnbroker. As such, many real-life pawnbrokers are perhaps unfairly maligned as being exploitative and money-grasping. The truth is more subtle. Pawnbrokers have historically played an important function: that of allowing people who need cash to get it, using valuables as a means of making the loan viable. Like any other modern financial business, they’re regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. As such, their customers can expect a degree of protection.